NOT a 5 star resort!!

Totally ridiculous wait to check in in a HOT and festering lobby with no AC. No one offered even a cold/refreshing drink on arrival! After standing in line for long time, I a, 78 year old senior, had to go myself to the lobby bar to get refreshment. Not acceptable for an acclaimed 5 star resort. The mini fridge was not restocked daily as it should be. I had to go out and get my own drinks. The shuttle was not at the stop near my room. Long walk to buffet every day, three times a day! The wors [... read more]t food I have had at any resort I have stayed at, including 4 and 4.5 resorts. There was no variety of food, from day to day. The same basic food was offered day after day. My stay was for two weeks and I got sick and tired of the same food every day. Yeas the variety consisted of a few variations to the basic chicken and meat dished, but basically a repeat of the same dishes for lunch and dinner. Once something finished, it was hard to find it replenished. That goes for the fresh fruits also! I am not a pork/bacon eater. The grill used to prepare meats is one big surface where all meats are grilled together, including pork with the the fish, chicken and beef!! The mixing of pork with the other meats, renders the other meats inedible for me. The service was totally unacceptable! The salt dispensers did not dispense any salt. One night there was no black pepper to be had, according to our server. Many days there was no Splenda!! Asked for Tabasco and was told they didn't have any, when every morning at the entrance, cocktail was "Bloody Mary" and Tabasco was there!! Most days I had to reject the coffee, because it was COLD! I rejected 5 cups, one day, before I was provided with hot coffee. At the bars there were days when there was no Tequila and I was told the resort had none anywhere. Days went by without mango juice anywhere! This is not a 5 star resort by any set of standards, I have been to 4 star resorts better than this. Absolutely and totally disappointed, I will never go to any Bahia resort again!! Went to a couple of entertainments and found them lacking in every respect! The quality of the entertainment was nothing that would induce me to sit in a hot outdoor arena. The overhead fans provided no air and no relief! I stayed for ten minutes and left. Totally ridiculous. Even 4 star resorts arenas are indoors and air conditioned!!! The Fridge in my room did not work properly. I am Diabetic and need to use insulin to control my sugar levels. I need to store my insulin supply in the fridge. The first day I complained about the fridge. No one came to do anything about it. I had to go to the lobby and request they store mt Insulin in the Lobby fridge, until my room fridge was fixed, Long story short, it took me three days to get a working fridge in my room. Totally unacceptable. There is no coffee shop at this resort, even though they advertise it as a 5 star! There is a coffee dispensing machine in the lobby which works sometimes and doesn't at all times. Besides, it is available from 7 am to 6 pm only!! If you want coffee after 6 pm, you are s... out of luck!! There is a sister resort next to Aquamarine balled the Ambar. It has a nice coffee shop, but we were not allowed to go there!! Totally ridiculous and unacceptable for a so called 5 star resort!!!! You have a long way to go in terms of facilities and service to claim this as a 5 star resort!!! Either improve it or take the 5 star rating away and at best, call it 4 star so people don't get misled and ripped off!!

Amazing!!

Hotel was great, the food the animations ( Walter and Eddy) just amazing!!! the service (Mayra)She was our waitress awesome and our bartender served our drinks (Alexander) super nice. Can't wait to go back had an amazing time 😊😊😊

Good resort

Overall a nice resort Only the rooms could do with a update and better service would not say this was a 5star resort we did eventually upgrade to the newly renovated Ambar luxury section of the Grand Bahia resort

Great Resort

Very nice vacation at a great resort. Staff was friendly and helpful. Resort well kept and clean. Restaurant options were good. Food was good. Nice beach. Entertainment was okay. Would recommend this resort to anyone.

Luxury resort

There was a problem with getting the rooms we paid for. After our Air Canada rep spoke to the concierge and continued insistence it was kind of corrected. Language barriers. Getting around a problem. They really need to spend time with first time guests showing them around. We spent time helping other guests to find their way. Great food, safe, clean, great accommodations, everything was excellent! Beautiful place will definitely go back next year.

Nice Resort

This is a very nice resort, the grounds are impeccable, everything is clean, the staff very polite and attentive. Bahia Principe is a very big Complex it has 5 different complexes, we were in an adult only " Aquamarine", it is not directly on the beach so you have to walk a bit to get there (5 to 7 min.) but there is always a lot of shuttle on the way that can pick you up and drive you directly to the beach. The beach is fabulous and pristine! But there is a lot of people. Luckily each compl [... read more]ex have an area assigned on the beach. We love the beach/ocean so we were there every day! all and all it was a very nice vacation, big sunshine every day, we loved it. Have a nice vacation!

Great resort

We stayed in a Junior Suite which was large and roomy even for two girlfriends to share the one big bed. The rooms and resort was very clean, even the common bathrooms had attendance checking up on them. The buffet was ok, normally had the same items every time. To be able to utilize the other restaurants from the next door resorts was very nice. Would recommend to do that for supper, BUT was hard to get booked in at times. The entertainment at this resort was ok, but again u can wonder over to  [... read more]the other resorts to see bigger better shows. They do offer shuttle service to get around which is super great. The foam pool party during the day is a blast. The bartenders need to be trained more, none of the mixed cocktails were ever the same. There was 4 of us and we all ordered the same cocktail and was made by the same bartender and all 4 drinks were different

To BIG

I have been to this resort many times from only two sections to the now 7 sections. They can't enlarge beach area so the beach is crowed. The pools are large but most days there were no free lounges to be had, guest hog the lounges at pool and beach , they must feel special since they don't have problem saving lounges when they don't intend to use most of the day and management doesn't seem to want to enforce the NO reserve rule. Food was good, service most days was excellent , at times lobby ba [... read more]r service was slow. I had no problems with hotel staff , they were always very helpful.

Still a great resort!!

First of all, this is our 3 time at this resort in four years and we can say that we still love it there. There were a couple of issues but one wasn’t the resorts fault. The beach was a lot rougher this year and a lot of seaweed. The second issue was the food. The previous 2 times we were there the food at the buffet was great. This time it wasn’t quite as good. It seemed like the cooks were younger and maybe not in touch with todays style of cooking. Checkin was great and staff were friendl [... read more]y. Cleaning staff weren’t as good as before but generally our room was ok. Hard to get face cloths. Not much entertainment at night. Pool was great. All and all it is still a good resort to vacation.

Outstanding resort!!!

my boyfriend and I were situated right by the lobby of aquamarine, it was central to the pool as well as the buffet. the buffet food was amazing for a resort, they had a lot of variety and healthy choices. servers were always kind and available. the a la carte dinners were even more amazing, we got to choose 6 restaurants during our 7 day stay and we were very impressed with all of them (my boyfriend has a sensitive stomach and is extremely particular about his food choices). we wished that we h [... read more]ad been closer to the beach, it was about a 10 minute walk but buggies were always available for transport. this resort is HUGE, i think has 7 different hotel sections. beach was a bit overcrowded so you need to either go during meal times or early in morning / later at night. overall, we had an amazing time, the reviews are as truthful as can be. amazing blue, clear water. extremely clean grounds & rooms, you see so many staff constantly working and keeping the resort beautiful. we are 100% coming back, hopefully the ambar section. and we have already recommend to so many people. really beautiful place all together.

Great Resort - beautiful grounds, good food - rooms sparkling clean but could use updating

First Note - I would go back to this resort - it was not perfect but was really good. Grounds- the grounds are lush and gorgeous. The buildings are pretty - some older with Caribbean charm and others more updated Room -we were in 81401 which was top floor in front of the pool. It was very clean, smallish closet, but had shelves and cupboards that provided everything we needed. The bed was very firm (bordering on hard) and there were lots of pillows. Towels were changed every day. The [... read more] housekeeping staff did an excellent job. Good safe to secure your valuables. The hallways echo so you can hear loud people coming and going but we only experienced this once. Air conditioning and water pressure were good. The room was very dated - we would prefer a modern and updated room. The room cards had to be replaced a few times as they sometimes wouldn’t work. Pool - very clean, lots of chairs and umbrellas and cabanas. Pool temp was perfect. The loungers were older but worked great. Beach/pool towels - not great. They use the old system of towel cards so you can only ever have one towel at a time. (Not enough for me but others wouldn’t care). The Towel bar doesn’t open until 9:00 which is late for some of us (7:00 is what I would expect). But when they are open you can get or exchange your towels easily. Beach - gorgeous white sandy beach - beach frontage has decreased due to water levels rising therefor the loungers are very cramped. No beach service provided for Aquamarine. Check-in - they seemed a bit disorganized at the start but we got on the first tram to the aquamarine lobby so it was faster for us. Restaurants- 1. Reservations: our friends send an email a week prior to our arrival asking for dinner reservations each night, with a time range and leaving the days for each reservations to the resort to sort - unfortunately they didn’t make a single reservation for us. They scrambled on our arrival and got us 5 a la carte reservations but most of them were late. Maybe the APP would have been more reliable however we didn’t want to provide personal identification information on the APP, which was required. 2. Food: the food was very good. Breakfast at the buffet had lots of variety and was very fresh. Lunches were good - poolside paellas were excellent and the burgers were ok. Buffet restaurants for lunch were good. Our favorite restaurant was El Olivo. - fantastic food and excellent servers. The other restaurants were: Mikado, Meat, Limbo, Protofino, Bella Italian. Good food - some great. Staff - most staff were excellent- many did not speak much English.

Lots of fun

1st time at the grand aquamarine and it was everything we hoped it would be. Never a dull moment. Staff and COVID protocols were exceptional. I only wished they enforced it more with the guests. I wonder if they can make a position out of mask enforcement. The food was great for the most part. Only issue was a lot of sugar and salt in everything. It was hard to find a non sugary drink or healthier food options. Also, if anyone from the resort sees this PLEASE look into Il Capriccio and Taquila r [... read more]estaurants. The food and service was beyond inexcusable. It needs a quality control intervention. 1.5 hour wait for our first meals and execution of the food was terrible… and no service with a smile…no service at all. It was a shame, as the rest of the restaurants we went to were incredible. I would say the staff were worked to the bone and spread thin though. Rooms were lovely! Everything felt safe and clean. The activities were fun and lively. For the price point this resort checked all of the boxes. Will return for sure.

Paradise!

Wonderful experience at Bahia Principe Aquamarine! Front desk personnel were exceptionally resourceful, kind and thoughtful. Agents running restaurant bookings were patient, diligent and accommodating. Activities offered were engaging and fun. Stellar all round!

A great escape

The hotel and grounds were fantastic! Just what I needed to escape the dreary ho-hum of winter. All the staff were friendly and helpful, the food and drinks were plentiful and great as well. I can't wait to book with Martine again and come back to Grand Bahia!

Would not recommend in the slightest

The hotel was so large, crowded and confusing. Staff were mostly rude and unhelpful. We were left in our room for 16 hours without food due to covid. Staff kept assuring us dinner would come and no one came.

Beautiful resort

This beautiful resort managed to make our stay feel as safe and normal as possible during a challenging time of getting staff and dealing with covid. The resort was very clean, the staff wore masks appropriately, were friendly, and were as helpful as possible even though many were new to the job. The beach area and beach buffet needed more staff to keep up with cleaning but this was also due to some visitors standards of cleaning after themselves, to be fair. It was very helpful for us to trave [... read more]l with my brother who could speak some Spanish. I would recommend this resort but would also encourage learning some basic language, use of translation app. We have found that people appreciate the respect of attempting to use at least polite phrases in their language.

Still a Great Resort

We vacationed November 27 to December 11. I've been reading reviews that are "2" and "4". Both apply in certain circumstances. Our 2 weeks there were early on in the reopening so there were some glitches with restaurant locations and reservations as well as supply of coffee, pop in the mini fridge, dearth of bathroom towels and consistency in service. But the grounds are in perfect condition - pools clean and well attended, lots of chairs and pool towels, the food is mostly good to very good [... read more] (with effort we obtained reservations for 12 of our nights). We especially enjoyed MEAT and the Indian restaurant; didn't love the Greek or Tequila. Our first room was not the upgrade to poolside and after the night of constant noise from the neighbouring hotel staff we asked to move but were told it would be an upgrade of $250 US. We decided to wait to see. After 3 days we showed the front staff the video we had taken of the music and noise at 3 a.m. Only then were we offered to move to another room on the same side of the hotel without an upgrade fee. We decided with 11 nights left to just pay the $ but were disappointed that option wasn't given to us on the first night. And speaking of upgrade costs - as is the case with "all inclusives" the attempt to get you to pay more begins the minute you get on the bus - it's like you're there for free and are meant to feel guilty if you don't buy more. The one issue I had is with the wine which is just terrible. They make their own and pour it into bottles. But to upgrade to something drinkable is minimum $38 US per bottle. To have wine with dinner every night would add $700 to our vacation!! Why not offer something drinkable? Or reasonable upgrade cost? We did meet people who had the false positive covid tests - this definitely added to stress levels over the week. Their stories are true. We were at Bahia Principe 2009 and 2010 - I would say the service is the same; language "barrier" hasn't changed. The resort is still very nice - not a 5* but a solid 4. And efforts were being made (example coffee makers in the rooms) every day to get things back on track.

Awesome Experience

Our experience at Grand Bahia Aquamarine was fantastic this past holiday (Christmas to New Year). Grounds- The one thing you will notice is how many staff are constantly maintaining and cleaning the premises. The resort is spotless. Staff- The staff are super accommodating and friendly. This includes front desk, bar staff etc. We ran into zero problems. If there were any issues, it was probably due to a language barrier, which comes with the territory when traveling to another country.  [... read more] Food- The food was great! Buffet and Al a Cart were all on point. You should definitely look into booking the restaurants immediately upon checking in as they fill up fast. But they are very good which is why they fill up quickly. Restaurants and Buffet staff ensure everyone is wearing a mask and wearing gloves. It's was an awesome experience, and a big part of that experience is due to the staff, the cleanliness and their seriousness towards COVID and your safety. Obviously, everyone still has to use their common sense. But if there were any moments where I felt "un easy" it was always due to the people not taking things seriously, NOT the resort or staff.

Disappointed...

Aquamarine should be re-labelled as a 3 Star resort. The product and services have been gutted. Aquamarine should be re-labelled as a 3 Star resort. The product and services have been gutted. Aquamarine should be re-labelled as a 3 Star resort. The product and services have been gutted.

Didn't stay at Aquamarine, it was Esmeralda

Hotel was okay, seaweed seems to be an issue people complain about, but they were out every morning to cleanup. Ala Carts were great!! Favorite was Indian!! Our only big issue is people do not like to wear masks and no enforcement.😷😔